The Dry Man of Europe—Ottoman Prohibition against British Domination

Chapter 8 examines temperance and prohibition history within the Ottoman Empire and secular Turkey. Drinking and viticulture were widespread throughout the empire, though the trade was often in the hands of non-Muslims. The Ottoman liquor traffic even became integral to the European-run Ottoman Public Debt Administration. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was among the drunkest leaders in world history, yet Atatürk and the secular Turkish government in Ankara embraced prohibitionism as a means of denying badly needed alcohol revenues to the Christians occupying their lands—most notably the British controlling Istanbul and the Greeks around Smyrna. Turkish prohibition expanded across Anatolia, as Atatürk liberated Turkey’s occupied territories. Only in 1924, with the end of foreign occupation, was the Kemalist prohibition rescinded, and replaced with a national alcohol monopoly, in which the financial benefits of the liquor trade would accrue to the Turkish state, not to foreigners.

The Lifelong Mysterious Relapsing “Kidney” Disease of the Founder of Turkey; Atatürk (1881–1938) in Connection with European Medical and Political History

<b><i>Introduction:</i></b> Although Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938) was a national hero with his intrepid and enlightened attempts to establish modern Turkey from the remnants of Ottoman heritage, he had been suffering from lifelong “kidney disease” that appeared with intermittent flank pain and fever without an identified source. However, we think that this physical pain that he endured only increased his motivation to focus on his military and political aims. <b><i>Methods &amp; Results:</i></b> In this historical review article, we have focused on his personal medical life and specifically his “kidneys” from the beginning of the complaint till his death through European medical and political history with geographic locations and speculated upon it via past, near past, and recent medical literature. <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the great military and political leader for his country, had always suffered from uro/nephrological problems throughout his life. We think that this was one of the reasons that urology has been privileged and thus to be the oldest separated medical surgical branch in Turkey and to some significant extent with European urological history.

Recent Case: The Turkish Decision on Hagia Sophia

On July 2, 2020, a division of Turkey’s highest administrative appellate court annulled[reference_link 1] a 1934 presidential decision[reference_link 2] by Kemal Ataturk, founding president of Turkey, converting Hagia Sophia (tr. Aya Sofya) into a museum. Days later, on July 10, 2020, Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a decision[reference_link 3] based on the court ruling, restoring its status as a mosque open to worship and transferring its maintenance to the country’s Presidency of Religious Affairs. Following a Turkish administrative court ruling that revoked an earlier administrative decision (1934) converting the mosque into a museum, President Erdogan of Turkey was expected[reference_link 4] to restore Hagia Sophia’s status as a mosque. Upon his decision to restore the site’s status as a mosque open to worship, Erdogan personally inspected[reference_link 5] the site and the preparations to have it ready for the Friday prayer on July 24, 2020. The government quickly named[reference_link 6] 3 imāms, one a professor of religious studies, for Hagia Sophia. On July 24, 2020, Erdogan, accompanied by top government officials and politicians, participated[reference_link 7] in the first Friday prayer at the site after a 86-year hiatus where he recited passages from the Qur’ān. 350,000 people are estimated[reference_link 8] to have been in attendance). For further context, see the Case Roundup on the Islamic Law Blog.[reference_link 9]